Reflect: God is a Father who delights in the words spoken by His children, every single word that is spoken to Him never goes unnoticed. He hears our stories, our fears, our requests, the unspoken words in our hearts. He is a Father who is deeply in love with His children.To trust that He is listening and responding, even when it seems that He is silent takes a great act of faith and that act of faith is like a precious gem in the hands of God. Today, abandon yourself into the Father’s hands with a bold confidence that He is listening and in in His goodness always responding.

Share: Today, look for ways God is responding to you whether that be through the kindness of others, in creation, through scripture or however He desires to surprise you today. Then write them down and recall them through the rest of Advent.

Reflect: Discouragement knocks us down. It takes away our motivation, it makes us feel unworthy or incapable. Discouragement prevents us from seeing the truth about ourselves, and our situation. Discouragement is not from God. The voice of the enemy discourages, while the voice of God encourages. When you feel discouraged, reject the devil’s lies, and give your frustrations to God, asking Him to show you the truth.

Share: Being honest about our discouragements can be difficult. Be bold today, and share your discouragement with another person. Allow them to encourage you. When someone shares their discouragements with you, remind them of the truth about who they are in God’s eyes.

Reflect: St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) used to share a story about a mother embroidering a quilt. Next to her, on a small stool, was her little son. As the son looked up at his mother’s embroidery, all he could see was the underside, and he said to her, “Mama, what an ugly picture! There are strings going every-which-way and it doesn’t look like anything!” The mother didn’t speak, but lowered her embroidery so that her son could the right side of the quilt. He looked at it with amazement, because he could now see how each thread had a specific place and purpose, to create a beautiful picture.

When we don’t see God’s plan, its easy to despair and think God has forgotten us. But in reality, God is weaving each moment of our lives into a beautiful tapestry that will bring us closer to Him. We may only see the underside of the tapestry, and it may look really messy. When we finally see the whole picture, we will see the beauty God had in mind all along.

Share: Share this video and story with a group or individual who may need the encouragement today.

Reflect: “It was Christ who chose the stable to be born in and who continues to choose unlikely places. In each of us, just beyond the noise of our outward life, there is some place of silence and darkness, an emptiness where, if we have courage enough, we are alone with ourselves.” (Caryll Houselander) In the unlikely stable of our hearts, in our waywardness and doubt, He longs to say: I am here and I love you!

Share: Take 5 minutes to reflect on the ways that Jesus has been present in the seemingly unlikely moments of your life. Then…THANK HIM! Gratitude opens our hearts to receive His love and it grows our faith. Then…THANK one of the people who showed Jesus’ love in that ‘unlikely moment’. DEO GRATIAS!

Reflect: We live in a world that wants to complete eradicate suffering because it sees no purpose or value. But as followers of Jesus, who himself suffered the torture of the passion and even death, we have the gift of a different perspective. The love that Jesus shows us is not only in the ultimate sacrifice and gift of his life that he offers, but in the constancy of his remaining in suffering with us. He suffers when we suffer and when we recognize that and allow him to accompany us in the pain, it consoles his heart and our own as well. It doesn’t mean that suffering disappears or goes away, but his consolation is solace in the midst of it. I once heard the account of a group of women who were martyred while holding their babies and was asked to consider what the deepest reality was for the children. Was it that they were being put to death or that they were being held by their mothers? Because of their age, they likely didn’t understand what was going on, but the fact that they were being held was the reality about which they were most aware. In moments of suffering, let us allow ourselves to be with Jesus and held by the Father so that we would embrace suffering not as a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived and a means to deeper intimacy with the Lord.

Share: Reach out to someone you know that is suffering physically, emotionally, or spiritually, and simply be with them. Don’t try to solve their pain, but offer them companionship and compassion by the gift of presence.